A FRUSTRATED Leominster homeowner is calling for enforcement action on a building overlooking his property.

Joseph McKay, 68, says the industrial building on Croft Business Park has had a considerable impact on his own privacy at home on Silurian Close.

Planning permission for an industrial building complex on the site was granted in 1989 but the property concerned was built two years ago.

The site owners, Leominster Properties Ltd, submitted a retrospective application for a link building and slight alterations to elevations to the scheme but planners refused it, stating there was an ‘unacceptable loss of privacy’ to those living on Silurian Close.

Mr McKay is now calling for enforcement action.

He said: “I have lived here for roughly 14 years. We had our searches done and there was nothing to say that the buildings would be put up, which is what happened around two years ago.

“I am not against people being employed and the buildings going up but this was not on the plans. I would like it to be made a single-storey building – as it should be.”

Herefordshire Council confirmed its planning enforcement team had not received a revised application to address the reasons for planning permission refusal. They now require access to the building and the works undertaken to make a full assessment of the impact on neighbours.

In a statement, they said: “A decision on what actions will be taken will follow this assessment.”

However, James Hinton, of Leominster Properties Ltd, said the site has always had planning permission for a building of that footprint and that height.

He added that the development meets the building regulation requirements but said he was "not unsympathetic to the people of Silurian Close".

"They have lived next door to an empty site, but it could have been developed at any point in the last 30 years," he added.

“We worked incredibly hard to keep this business in Leominster.

"They are good quality jobs which would have otherwise moved to Redditch.”